Julie Walters's Quotes

I was the little, funny one. I felt I was the child among grown women.

I went through bits of the 60s and thought myself a bit of a hippy.

I'd like to think there'll be too much of real life going on for me to want to do much acting.

I'm massively talented, and very, very beautiful in person; the public don't really realise that.

I'm too young at 50. I'm not grown up yet. There's part of everybody like that.

In order to be creative you have to be allowed to fail.

It's getting better but men still earn more and there are more jobs for them. Ageism is a big thing. Parts for women disappear as you get older.

It's very strong after the birth. It's extraordinary. You can't watch anything to do with kids being harmed.

My grandmother lived with us for a short time while I was a child. Old people tend to be slightly more eccentric - they can behave the way they want.

Some people have a terrible stretch between family and work. It is a difficult thing to achieve.

Stage is the most exciting. Film is lovely, because it's like a family.

Suddenly, you are very much in the present, and you learn it's really the place where you should always live.

The money isn't a lure. I've done very well out of this business.

The way I relax is I think, 'I haven't got anything coming up.' I like to know there are months ahead when I've got nothing.

We have to take risks with art. If we don't, it all becomes a bit boring.

You can't help but feel a little bit like a mother to the younger cast members.

Along the way I have been able to choose some themes which ask questions - not necessarily force a message on anyone, but at least invite the audience to question things: jury service, dignity in dying, Ireland - and not least because they force me to ask myself questions. Where do I stand?

Everyone comes up to me saying, 'Cooee, Julie! Hello!' as if I know them. Of course I don't bloody know them. Am I flummoxed by it? Sometimes. I think, 'Ooh, love, go easy.' For a time, I did feel this pressure that I had to be funny, but it passes.

I remember Michael saying, 'Rich and famous? It's much better to be just rich'. I didn't quite get it to begin with. But he's right. You lose anonymity. I say to my family that you've no idea until you lose it how precious anonymity is.

I'll tell you how it happened. The phone rang. Paul, my agent, goes, 'Would you like to play Meryl Streep's?' I said, 'Yeeees! I'll do it, whatever it is.' He said, 'It's Mamma Mia!.' I said, 'Oh no, which character? The fat friend?

I'm more selective now I've got a family. I don't want to work all the time. My daughter's 12; I don't want to miss out on her life. Soon she'll be a teenager; she won't want me around.

I'm writing a novel about two actresses who go to New York, because that's what I know about. One has lost touch with reality, disappears and is picked up by a man.

It wasn't being an alcoholic - it was going wild. It happened when I got famous. It was like having my teens in my early thirties: blotting out your life, not having to think about anything.

It's getting better generally, daily, especially in TV, for women in acting; and age and looks count less. As more women come into the business. Change of any sort takes a long time to happen.

Oh all the time when Victoria Wood and I did our series. There were people asking 'Can women be funny?' People still ask that. It's like asking: 'Can women breathe in and out?'

Sixty felt like a big landmark. Not in a dreadful sense, but none of the other birthdays have bothered me. It's got labels on it - OAP, retirement - and I just wanted to take stock. I wanted to be in my greenhouse at home and at least give myself the opportunity of not working again.